TMS and DataCore peddle flashy support for virtual servers

TMS flash arrays are being bundled with SANsymphony-V software from DataCore to provide fast flash-based SAN array support to virtualised servers.

The combination of RamSan flash appliances from TMS with the DataCore storage hypervisor software is aimed at VMware servers and accelerating hem by adding an automatically tiered flash storage pool on top of their existing disk drive storage. The RamSan hardware, using either SLC or MLC flash, is attached directly to a server host or accessed through a fabric link with users setting up policies for their virtual storage pools.

TMS says that "when provisioning a virtual machine disk format (VMDK) on a LUN presented to the SANsymphony-V cluster, the virtual guest can utilise internal paging mechanisms with sub-millisecond response times," to the flash while still using the existing disk drive storage.

DataCore's Carlos Carreras, VP for alliances and business development, said: "The TMS RamSan-SANsymphony-V bundled offerings can easily be configured to turn new or existing servers and local storage into high-performance storage arrays optimised for virtual infrastructures.

"By organising disks with different performance levels into separate tiers and using RamSan appliances as the fastest tier with SAS or SATA drives on the lower tiers, customers benefit from the optimised throughput delivered by SANsymphony-V’s automatic storage tiering technology. [It] dynamically adapts to the …. application workloads to deliver unparalleled performance for physical and virtual environments."